Stuck at the Border

More than three years in, Google has amassed a healthy roster of countries covered by Street View. Entering 2011, 27 countries plus Antarctica have been at least partially traversed by camera, with many more on the horizon. Alas, there are still those places where the Street View cars must turn around at the border – but sometimes the cameras get close enough to give us a glimpse at what lies on the other side.

For sheer impressiveness, however, it’s hard to beat the sight of the Rock of Gibraltar looming over the Spanish border at La Linea while a thunderstorm prepares to hit overhead:

The prize for ‘Most Ornate Entrance Captured on Street View’ might have to go to the border between Rimini, Italy and Serravalle, San Marino, where the microstate has constructed a pedestrian overpass and an observation tower for tourists, leading into a major shopping district. The other main entrance to San Marino would probably be described as ‘quaint’ by comparison.

The absurdly complicated Dutch-Belgian border at Baarle (documented previously on Google Sightseeing) is likely to have presented special challenges to the Street View team. However, they have cleverly managed to avoid publishing any images captured on Belgian soil – despite examples such as this, where the camera car must drive from Holland at one end of the block, across a tiny sliver of Belgium, and back to Holland at the other end.

Baarle’s not the only town cut in half in Street View. Here’s a place where you park in France to dine at a cafe in Luxembourg:

Near the tri-point of Italy, Austria and Slovenia, we get this multi-national flag arrangement at an old Austrian customs building. Further into the Alps, the Street View car camera ends its trip at the ski resort of Nassfeld, where one of the ski lifts lies right next to a field of grazing cattle.

The lone glimpse of Russian soil captured so far on Street View is the view across a small lake from Norway (the only place you can actually drive south into Russia from), where we get a blurry view of a building on a hill overlooking the lake. Hmm, a regular house, or a Cold War spy shanty? You be the judge…

South Africa is the only African country so far visited by Street View, but sadly most of the border shots are not particularly notable. For example, the images simply stop by a fence on the middle of the road at the border with Swaziland, while the border with Botswana couldn’t be any more different, merely possessing a single stop sign.

We end our forbidden borderland odyssey with a glimpse from Singapore across the Straits of Johor to downtown Johor Bahru.

With luck, one day we’ll be able to get a glimpse beyond those borders as Street View continues to roll out coverage in countries across the globe. (Then we can finally find out just what it is they’re trying to hide from us…)

Locations

About the author

Kyle is a jack-of-all-trades geographer and archivist in rural British Columbia and was formerly the proprietor of humble geography blog The Basement Geographer. He enjoys a good game of hockey and a good 30-km walk with a frozen beverage in hand.

If you move around a bit on the picture of the Austria/Italy border, the one with the cows and ski lift, you can see that the name on the Austrian border sign (the blue sign with the EU circle of stars) has been blurred out.

One deadly border which lasted for 28 years was the Berlin wall. I’m living – now – in the state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin. Unitl now only Berlin has got streetview, so the border is still there, at least virtually. Here (Brandenburg/Berlin / Google Earth) you’re on the Berlin side and can easily look over the no more existing iron curtain.

The South Africa – Botswana border post most definitely doesn’t look like that. It’s actually a little further up the road, you can see a collection of buildings on both sides of the border on Google Earth.

Welcome to Google Sightseeing

Google Sightseeing takes you on a tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Our team of authors present weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

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Previously on Google Sightseeing

Europe plays host to some of the planet’s most breathtaking mountain vistas. Much of this wonderful scenery is accessible relatively easily by vehicle – and therefore by Street View! In this entry, we count down the five highest paved roads on the continent.

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